Bruce Scott (Maranoa, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to highlight this Labor government's refusal yet again to listen to the concerns of remote and rural communities across Maranoa and rural Australia. In particular, I refer today to those areas that receive television through the remote licence area conditions.

Last week I found out that the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Conroy, had blocked the proposal by the Remote Area Planning and Development Board, which is based in Longreach, which would help communities in remote television licence areas after the switchover to digital television. The proposal would have seen funding under the Australian government's Satellite Subsidy Scheme pooled and directed towards converting the existing retransmission facilities. The board was merely hoping to replicate a service which has operated successfully for many years. The minister's decision is quite clearly a punch in the guts for people in those communities of rural and remote Australia.

For decades, local councils and remote communities have rebroadcast an analog television terrestrial signal. This meant that households, businesses, caravan parks, hotels and motels could receive their television via an antenna. The minister has now decided that the broadcasters will no longer be required to install digital television ground infrastructure for communities with fewer than 500 residents. Remote communities will now be forced to take up the government supported Viewer Access Satellite Television at a cost for connection of between $1,000 and $1,500, which is much more than the government's Satellite Subsidy Scheme cost of $400 in standard areas and $550 in remote areas.

We still have no subsidy available in remote communities under the proposal for hospitals, health clinics, motels, hotels, and caravan parks. What will happen in these communities under the proposal is that the signal will only be received on a satellite dish. Imagine going to a community today without a mobile phone signal. That is what it will be like in these communities. If you are an outback tourist going into many of these communities, as part of the great outback odyssey, the only way you will be able to receive television is if there is a satellite dish. Hotels are going to have to convert to the satellite signal with their own money. I have hotels and motels in my electorate saying it is going to cost them up to $15,000 to convert because they are moving from a terrestrial signal to a satellite-only solution, and under the terrestrial signal all they had to do was convert some of the televisions in the rooms. It reminds me of the Labor government under Paul Keating when they shut down the analog mobile service without a suitable replacement. This is yet another example showing that this government does not understand the needs of rural and remote Australia. (Time expired)